Mixed-Up Menagerie – Arting with Kids

I love to draw and my kids love to draw.  Sometimes we draw at the same time and together as a whole group.  This weekend, we couldn’t decide what we could all work on together so we decided to set ourselves a little challenge.  Think ‘The Island of Dr Moreau’ meets ‘Dr Dolittle’.

We wrote the names of scores of animals – representatives from every species – onto little slips of paper, folded these bits of paper up and popped them in a bowl.  Then each of us would select at least two slips of paper and draw the resulting hybrid animal.  We could only return a slip if the animals chosen at random were too similar.  The idea then was to draw something amusing, something that gave us all a bit of a chuckle, rather than to produce a drawing that even approached realism.

We had an absolute hoot drawing our crazy animals.  The kids drew theirs in pencil.  I also drew in pencil but then went over my lines with pitt pen and gave each drawing a quick watercolour wash to add colour.  Once each combination critter was drawn, we shared our drawings.  Much chuckling ensued.  Naming our animals through use of portmanteau resulted in yet more mirth.

Here are a selection of our hybrid beasties.

So if you want a simple, quick, easy art project to do with kids – or just for fun yourself – then I highly recommend doing this.  I know we will do this again and again.